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Coal Creek Trail set to reopen in September

By Doug Pike

Colorado Hometown Weekly

Posted:
07/22/2014 01:14:26 PM MDT

Updated:
07/24/2014 10:36:19 AM MDT

The Coal Creek trailhead parking lot on Public Road in Lafayette likely won't reopen until September, a year after floods wiped out the trail underpass and parking area. (Doug Pike / Colorado Hometown Weekly)

The Coal Creek Trail system in eastern Boulder County is scheduled to reopen in September — one year to the month after flood waters wiped out much of the regional connector.

For the past 10 months, restoration projects coordinated by Superior, Louisville, Lafayette, Erie and Boulder County have slowly brought the trail back online, with each community handling repairs within its borders.

The trail segments in Superior and Boulder County have been restored and reopened. Erie's trail repair efforts are set to wrap up next month. Officials in Louisville and Lafayette don't expect their trail work to extend beyond September.

"There is an end in sight," Erie Public Works Director Gary Behlen said. "They just brought in some crusher fines out there, and they're cleaning up the project now, so we're in good shape to finish the project by the end of August."

Erie's Coal Creek Trail extension, which opened barely a month prior to the September flood, lost about a half-mile of trail surface and suffered extensive damage to a bridge and creek drop structure near Erie Municipal Airport.

"We're wrapping up those repairs," Behlen said. "And the developer still has to finish up some of the sewer line work in that area."

Behlen said the town has directed residents to its other municipal trails as alternatives to Coal Creek.

"We do get a lot of questions on that trail, but fortunately, we have a lot of other trails in the community for people to explore," Behlen said.

Erie recently launched a series of trail videos to promote some of the town's other pathways while Coal Creek Trail construction continues. The trail videos are available at erieco.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=901.

U.S. 36 underpass closed until 2015

Louisville has reopened sections of the trail, but final repairs won't conclude until September, according to the city's website.

Final trail reconstruction work is still dependent on approvals from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Colorado Office of Emergency Management.

While the city's work on the trail is drawing to a close, the trail won't be open end-to-end for some time.

The portion of the trail that goes under U.S. 36 has been closed by the Colorado Department of Transportation in conjunction with its highway construction work. CDOT is targeting a September 2015 reopening date for the underpass.

Trail reroute in Lafayette

A mountain biker rides through a washout area to reach a section of the Coal Creek Trail in eastern Lafayette. (Doug Pike / Colorado Hometown Weekly)

Underpass repairs are among the final pieces to the Coal Creek Trail puzzle in Lafayette as well. The city has a contractor on site at 120th Street, rebuilding the trail underpass. Work was delayed last week when a flash flood erased the progress made on repairs, but the trail remains open.

"The only section that is closed — and it's a soft closure — is the section north of Empire Road between the two bridges. We had a lot of damage down there," said Rob Burdine, Lafayette's new open space superintendent. "That's one area where we'll have to reroute the trail because it's under water."

Detours still remain around the trailhead and underpass at Public Road and the underpass at 120th, but the entire stretch of the Coal Creek Trail in Lafayette is accessible for the time being.

"I think residents are satisfied right now because the trail is open, but we want to get it back to the way it was," Burdine said.

Burdine said a hard closure is coming for the trail segment near Empire Road, once contractors are able to turn their attention to that portion of the trail.

Lafayette also just received its final permits from the Army Corps of Engineers for work on the Public Road underpass and trailhead.

Burdine said Lafayette will ask for trail users' cooperation and patience through September, when final repairs to all sections of the trail are planned for completion.

"We had an obligation to get every FEMA dollar we can for these projects, but it's a process, and it takes time," Burdine said.

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